Chief football correspondent Alan Pattullo joins Mark Atkinson from a rowdy Munich to discuss Scotland's Euro 2024 opener against Germany.
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00:00Hello and welcome to this very special edition of the Scotsman football show. It's the day
00:08we've all been waiting for, the Euro 2024 opener involving Scotland and Germany. And
00:14Alan Pattullo is in Munich for us to cover what's sure to be an incredible night for
00:20Scottish football. Alan, it sounds quite noisy where you are in Munich.
00:26Yeah, absolutely. I finally managed to find a spot in central Munich which is reasonably
00:32quiet but as you can hear there's still hundreds of Scotland fans behind me singing various
00:39An Army Favourite songs. It's just incredible scenes here actually. I managed to make it
00:47to a party last night that was put on by a charity event where the Great and the Good
00:54were there, Alex Ferguson, Alan McCoyst, Alex McLeish, which was for the Street Soccer
01:00charity. It was an incredible night but I was thinking, I was bumping into lots of people
01:08from even near where I am, Scottish farmers, Angus farmers who were all gathered there.
01:14I was wondering, there's not much work being done in Scottish fields today. Scottish agriculture
01:21is having a day off today I think because everyone seemed to be at this party last night
01:24and various other spots in Munich. I think somebody said something like 3% of the Scottish
01:30population has come over to Munich and I can believe it, I assure you. But yeah, obviously
01:37only 9,500 or so have got tickets for the actual game, precious tickets. They are the
01:46very lucky ones. Even the ones that aren't getting in to see the game I think are going
01:50to have a real ball here and obviously as the hours count down towards kick-off.
01:56Does it feel, Alan, like there's many fans that have years of pent-up frustration and
02:02wait finally coming out here in Munich?
02:05Oh yeah, definitely, definitely. Matt just bumped into a friend and his eight-year-old
02:11son I think. He's brought him out here. I'm not quite sure what the school is probably
02:18thinking about that. But yeah, just obviously people are thinking, well this might not happen
02:22again. Those who perhaps went to 1998 and were at that Morocco game in Saint Etienne
02:29like I was in 1998, if somebody said to me then that this wouldn't happen again, that
02:34Scotland wouldn't play a major finals game abroad until 2024, well I think they were
02:40mad. It's funny, isn't it? It kind of feels a bit like we were dismissing three years
02:46ago Euro 2020, which felt like a big thing at the time, obviously qualifying for a first
02:52major finals for so long. But I think we can all look back on that and think it wasn't
02:56quite the top version of a major finals that we all like and love. This one certainly feels
03:04like a souped-up major finals with all the trimmings.
03:09Good, good. Well look, let's talk about the football very briefly. A huge night for Steve
03:15Clarke and his players. You were down there at the Munich Arena last night talking to
03:20the manager and Andy Robertson, the captain. What's your feeling about tonight's match
03:28on the field of play? Once the game starts, once all the noise ends, what chance do you
03:35give this Scotland team?
03:39Like everyone else I find who I talk to throughout the game, I find myself swithering and switching
03:46between confidence and perhaps pessimism. It's such a big occasion, you do wonder what
03:52might happen if Scotland could freeze, they could spend 20 minutes trying to get into
03:59the game and that could be 20 minutes too long. Germany could have struck twice by then
04:02or something. You don't know what might happen and what the mentality of the Scotland players
04:09is going to be. But hearing Andy Robertson last night, he really looks like he's experienced
04:17these big occasions many times before. He's even experienced winning in the Allianz and
04:22before with Liverpool. It's not going to phase Andy Robertson, for example. Perhaps some
04:28other players who aren't so used to this kind of experience might need a good first touch
04:36just playing themselves into the game. That's always a factor. Steve Clarke, as Steve Clarke
04:44always is, is quite calm, measured. He walked into the press conference last night and there
04:50must have been 400 reporters in the room, packed auditorium. You could tell that that slightly
04:58took him aback. You can tell it's a big game with all these reporters here. But he didn't
05:04give much away. He didn't put on a show for these reporters who perhaps aren't used to Steve Clarke.
05:09He was just very, very straight back, straight to the point. I think one of the main lines from
05:15what he said last night was, we respect everyone but we fear no one. It really was quite a
05:24ballsy and bullish statement of intent from Steve Clarke. In that way, I really think Steve has done
05:33all he can to prepare the team. They'll know what's in front of them and know the eyes of Europe
05:40are on them and what a big occasion it is. Now it's just down to them. I suppose for us,
05:48the most interesting point is going to be 90 minutes before kick-off when the team comes out
05:52and we can finally discuss what's in front of us, what players have been picked for this job.
06:01Most of us are fairly confident nine or ten of the players.
06:04It's going to be a point where we're all wondering about.
06:07Yes, the team will be fascinating. Look, the waiting is almost over. I think we've done
06:12well on this short video not to be photobombed by a member of the Tasman army. So we're going to
06:18leave it there for now and let you crack on and travel over to the stadium. Thanks for joining us,
06:23Alan. We'll have loads from Alan written and in video as the tournament progresses. But from
06:29myself and Alan, that's a very noisy and busy Munich, it's bye for now.